Swiss Miss ***½ (1938, Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Grete Natzler, Walter Woolf King, Eric Blore, Charles Judels, Eddie Kane) – Classic Movie Review 6931

Director John G Blystone’s 1938 comedy stars Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as cheesy mousetrap sellers in the Swiss Alps, who get swindled out of their money by a cheesemaker and become waiters at a hotel chalet, then foils for Anna, a famous opera singer (Della Lind, aka Grete Natzler) posing as a chambermaid, who tries to make her opera composer husband (Walter Woolf King) jealous by flirting with Hardy.

Set during a musical festival, the contrived and over-plotted musical comedy slightly cramps Stan’n’ Ollie’s style, but they are as delightful as always. They have several polished routines, including Hardy singing to his love while Laurel plays the tuba, the scenes of mayhem in the kitchen and the boys’ encounter with a gorilla trapped half way across a rickety rope bridge high above an Alpine gorge.

Also in the cast are Eric Blore, Charles Judels, Eddie Kane, Anita Garvin, Franz Hug, Sam Lufkin, Tex Driscoll, George Sorel, Harry Semels, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Doodles Weaver, Jean De Briac, Adia Kuznetzoff, Ludovico Tomarchio and Charles Gemora as the gorilla.

Swiss Miss is directed by John G Blystone, runs 73 minutes (65 minutes edited), is a production of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Hal Roach Studios, is released by MGM, is written by James Parrott, Charles Rogers, Felix Adler and Charles Nelson, from a story by Jean Negulesco, Charles Rogers, Stan Laurel and Hal Roach, is shot in black and white by Norbert Brodine and Art Lloyd, is produced by Hal Roach, and is designed by Charles D Hall.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6931

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